Short Paper— An Assessment of Culturally Appropriate Design: A Malaysian University Context An Assessment of Culturally Appropriate Design: A Malaysian University Context https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v12i2.8014 Shamsul Arrieya Ariffin!!", Azniah Ismail, Maizatul Hayati Yatim, Salman Firdaus Sidek Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia shamsul@fskik.upsi.edu.my Abstract—The growing popularity of mobile devices, together with the constant technological improvement of mobile websites and applications in- formed about the quality of the user interface design. However, the particulari- ties of mobile devices require special attention in terms of their usability as- pects, such as culture. Therefore, this study evaluated the use of culturally ap- propriate design guidelines for a mobile learning web site. The research meth- odology used comprised a survey from heuristic evaluation questionnaires with undergraduate students. This research captured the students’ experiences in us- ing the MLearn website of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia. From the study, the lowest ranking is realistic error management at 3.5, and the high- est is suitable content for local culture at 4.6. This study affirmed that general usability and cultural principles in design are important for a usable mobile learning website system in a local university context. Keywords—Usability, Mobile Learning, Culturally Appropriate Design 1 Introduction Mobile learning is a fairly new approach in the educational paradigm where learn- ing is concerned, particularly in terms of the website user interface design. The mo- bile learning process may involve the usage of mobile devices, such as mobile phones, or laptops, etc. In addition, mobile learning is also known as the process in- volving conversations across multiple contexts among people and personal interactive technologies [18]. As users interact with mobile learning websites on a variety of smartphones or oth- er Internet-capable mobile devices, all with different hardware and software, it is commonly considered best practice to perform usability tests prior to the launch of a new website to assess its user-friendliness. Checking the usability of a system can be done from the evaluation of various application techniques [15]. One such technique that can be used is the heuristic evaluation of usability, and interview sessions with the participants. An interaction tool must be a very efficient system provide satisfacto- ry interaction through its usability [4]. iJIM ‒ Vol. 12, No. 2, 2018 207 Short Paper— An Assessment of Culturally Appropriate Design: A Malaysian University Context 2 Literature Review 2.1 Mobile Learning Mobile learning is defined as “Learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions, using personal electronics devices” [3]. Additionally, mobile learning takes place when the learner is not fixed in a predetermined location, or when the learner “takes advantage of the learning opportunities offered by mobile technolo- gy” [14]. For example, mobile learning should be restricted to learning on small and portable devices [7], while, the nature of mobile addresses “mediated learning through mobile technology” [22]. The role of mobile learning can improve access to education in developing coun- tries in Asia. Mobile learning makes education more accessible in that it enables learners to pursue their learning according to their own schedule. The portability of mobile technology means that mobile learning is not bound by fixed class times. This complements the research of six mobile learning projects that took place in five de- veloping countries in Asia – the Philippines, Mongolia, Thailand, India, and Bangla- desh [21]. Similar to most developing countries, mobile learning interventions are being undertaken in Asia, and such development indicates that the region could be- come a global leader in the educational uses of mobile devices [11]. Moreover, mo- bile learning can facilitate design for authentic learning, meaning learning that targets real-world problems and involves projects that are of relevance and interest to the learner [8]. Distance learning is not a recent phenomenon to Malaysians [6]. Many individuals, especially those who are still working and aspire to be successful in their career de- velopment, enrolled for external degrees offered by reputable universities in the 1960s or earlier. Mobile learning initiatives in Malaysia are being undertaken mainly by universities, colleges, and business enterprises [6]. Mobile learning is rising in Malay- sian society, particularly among those involved in education, which may involve many mobile applications including local websites [13]. In addition, mobile learning can be extended to improve the quality of the mobile applications via usability with culturally appropriate design guidelines (CADG). 2.2 Mobile Usability and cultural design guidelines Mobile usability can be considered to be a specialty in the usability field that is currently emerging [12]. One study in the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) field found that to produce computer systems with the appropriate usability, it is important to understand the psychological, ergonomic, organizational, and social factors that define how people work. For instance, mobile usability reflects the perceived ease of navigating the site or making purchases through the Internet, which is considered to be a critical factor in the development of electronic commerce [5]. Likewise, mobile application activities enable students to study local cultural subjects in a variety of ways. For example, four (4) main culturally appropriate design principles can be ap- 208 http://www.i-jim.org Short Paper— An Assessment of Culturally Appropriate Design: A Malaysian University Context plied when developing the local content of mobile devices for mobile learning pur- poses [1]. 2.3 Four existing guidelines for mobile application There are four (4) existing guidelines for comparison of Culturally Appropriate Design Guidelines, for mobile applications – Shneiderman’s Golden Rules of inter- face design (SGR), Human-Centered Design (HCD) (ISO standard 13470), Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 (W3CBP), and Nielsen. A comparison between the four exist- ing guidelines for mobile application development with CADG is illustrated in Table 1. Table 1. Comparison between four existing guidelines for mobile application development with CADG CADG SGR Nielsen HCD W3CBP Accessibility " Consistency " " " Good Ergonomic and Minimalist User Interface Design " " " " Readability and Ease of Recall " Efficiency and Flexibility " Realistic Error Management " " " Suitable Content for Local Cultural Aesthetic Value According to Local Culture " (Not for LC) Local Language Philosophical Values 3 Research Methodology The research methodology focuses on the strategy for assessing the mobile learn- ing website system of MobiLearn. MobiLearn is a local university mobile application website developed for a local university. In this study, participants were given one week to learn and familiarize themselves with this application. This research conduct- ed a heuristic evaluation by giving two (2) classes of 60 participants’ questionnaires. During the first session, the two classes of participants focused on the briefing session about the MobiLearn application function before they could answer the questionnaire. This session only took 30 minutes for each class. After one week, the participants were given the questionnaire. In figure 1, the Methodology diagram, Thematic Analy- sis is the methodology used by the researcher to examine the discussion data for the Culturally Appropriate Design Guideline principles. Themes were generated as they emerged from the research data. This paper discusses the descriptive results from the heuristic evaluation. The surveys are divided into sections of the design principles: Accessibility, Consistency, Good Ergonomics, Readability, Efficiency & Flexibility, Error Prevention, Suitable Content, Aesthetic Value, Language, and Local Philosophy iJIM ‒ Vol. 12, No. 2, 2018 209 Short Paper— An Assessment of Culturally Appropriate Design: A Malaysian University Context Fig. 1. Methodology Diagram Table 2. Mobile application development with CADG [1] Principle Description Accessibility Refers to the inclusive practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to websites, by people with disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users have equal access to information and functionality. Consistency A harmonious uniformity or agreement among things or parts. Good ergonomics Design factors, as for the workplace, intended to maximize productivity by minimizing operator fatigue and discomfort. Readability Refers to the way in which words and blocks of type are arranged on a page. Efficiency & Flexibility Efficiency is a measure of how well a website does what it should do. Flexibility may refer to hardware, software, or a combination of the two. It describes a device or program that can be used for multiple purposes, rather than a single function. Error prevention Error prevention practices as part of the application design mean implementing specific design techniques and using the capabilities of the product to help prevent system and application errors. Suitable content Suitable content means the content suits the culture or the environment. Aesthetic Value Focuses on the study of the beauty or aesthetics of the user interface. Language The system of communication used by a particular community or country. Local philosophy The study of ideas about knowledge, truth, and the nature and meaning of life. 210 http://www.i-jim.org Short Paper— An Assessment of Culturally Appropriate Design: A Malaysian University Context 4 Findings/Results This research focuses on the descriptive quantitative evaluation from the students for the Mobilearn mobile learning website system UPSI. This research has undergone several phases of evaluation for the cultural aspect and general usability principles. 4.1 Results from Ranking Evaluation The data collected from the heuristic evaluation questionnaires with all the partic- ipants were analyzed and discussed. Being supported by the quantitative computations and statistical conclusions, it can be concluded that the culturally appropriate design can be improved. There are usability challenges for students in using this new mobile learning system. Both the general usability and cultural aspects are also proven to complement each other and have a significant effect on this mobile application. Table 3. The Ranking and Mean for the Guideline Principles in Ascending Order Ranking (Lowest to Highest) Guideline Principles Total Mean 1 Realistic error management 3.4758 2 Efficiency and flexibility 3.8852 3 Aesthetic value according to local culture 3.9234 4 Readability and ease of recall 3.9516 5 Consistency 4.0538 6 Good ergonomic and minimalist user interface design 4.1237 7 The local philosophy has local culture value 4.1371 8 Accessibility 4.2903 9 The language use is for local culture 4.3387 10 Suitable content for local culture 4.6290 Table 3 shows the ranking of the application based on the mean from the lowest ranking to the highest. The ranking of each item for each principle was averaged to provide an overall evaluation of whether or not students agreed with all the state- ments. It can be seen that the lowest ranking is realistic error management with a mean of 3.4758 and the highest is suitable content for local culture with 4.6290. Based on the results in Table 3 it can be concluded that this website mobile learn- ing system is very suitable for the local culture, as, from the evaluation, the cultural design principle receives the highest ranking for suitable content for local culture. However, the mobile application also lacks the realistic error management principle in the design having received the lowest ranking through the evaluation. iJIM ‒ Vol. 12, No. 2, 2018 211 Short Paper— An Assessment of Culturally Appropriate Design: A Malaysian University Context 5 Discussion The research literature review could lead to opportunities and challenges that would influence the cultural perspectives in the Mobilearn mobile learning website system UPSI. From the data collected through this research, this website mobile ap- plication is very suitable for the local culture. The cultural principle for local content received the highest ranking at 4.62 but lacked realistic error management, which received the lowest ranking score of only 3.47. Although the researcher faced avoida- ble challenges and constraints throughout this research, these challenges and con- straints did not become a barrier to the researcher in reaching the objectives of this research. Challenges, such as limited cultural and philosophy policies in the applica- tion, were raised by the participants, as well as technical issues, such as wireless cov- erage, lack of training, and many more. Another main issue was the lack of local con- tent for mobile applications. The lack of local content is the main motivation and concern of this study. From the research, it can be concluded that there is a lack of local content [9], and lack of quality educational content for Asia for Mobile learning websites [20]. Table 4. Culturally Appropriate Design Guidelines No Description Culturally Appropriate Design Guidelines 1 General Usability Accessibility 2 General Usability Consistency 3 General Usability Good Ergonomic and Minimalist User Interface Design 4 General Usability Readability and Ease of Recall 5 General Usability Efficiency and Flexibility 6 General Usability Realistic Error Management 7 Cultural Aspect Suitable Content for Local Cultural 8 Cultural Aspect Aesthetic Value According to Local Culture 9 Cultural Aspect Local Language 10 Cultural Aspect Philosophical Values 6 Conclusion From this study, the capturing of user experience was quite difficult, because of the many different factors in the user-product interaction. For the evaluation, these factors should be clarified, and a goal for the test defined in a test plan is recommended for future studies. This may help make the evaluation more systematic. This research focused on the descriptive evaluation from the students for the Mo- bilearn UPSI Application. This research affirmed the significance of the cultural as- pect and general usability principles for a local mobile website application. 212 http://www.i-jim.org Short Paper— An Assessment of Culturally Appropriate Design: A Malaysian University Context 7 References [1] Ariffin, S. A., & Dyson, L. E. (August, 2015) Culturally Appropriate Design of Mobile Learning Applications in the Malaysian Context. In International Conference on Cross- Cultural Design (pp. 3-14). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20934-0_1 [2] Brady, F., & Dyson, L. E.(2010) A comparative study of mobile technology adoption in remote, Australia. [3] Crompton, H. A Historical overview of m-learning: Toward learner-centered education. In Berge, Z.L. and Muilenburg, L.Y. (Eds.), Handbook of Mobile Learning (pp. 3-14). New York, NY: Routledge, 2007 [4] Cybis, W., Betiol, A. H., & Faust, R. 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Using mobile phones to improve educational out- comes: An analysis of evidence from Asia. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 11(1), 117-140, 2010. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v11i1.794 [23] Winters, N. What is mobile learning? In M. Sharples (Ed.), Big issues in mobile learning: Report of a workshop by the kaleidoscope network of excellence mobile learning initia- tive. University of Nottingham, 2006. [24] Young, P. A. (2008). Integrating culture in the design of ICTs. British Journal of Educa- tional Technology, 39(1), 6-17. 8 Authors Shamsul Arrieya Ariffin, Azniah Ismail, Maizatul Hayati Yatim and Salman Firdaus Sidek are with the Faculty of Art, Computing and Creative Industry, Univer- siti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia. Article submitted 23 November 2017. Final acceptance 23 February 2018. Final version published as submitted by the authors. 214 http://www.i-jim.org iJIM – Vol. 12, No. 2, 2018 An Assessment of Culturally Appropriate Design: A Malaysian University Context